Transformative Recovery of Low-Grade Waste Heat using Ionic Thermoelectrics

电子热电技术利用半导体将余热转化为电能。这是一种成熟的能源发电技术，例如，美国国家航空航天局（NASA）就使用这种技术为火星探测器提供动力。但由于温差小，发电能力差，不太适合低品位余热回收。离子导体产生更大的热电压，更适合于接近室温的操作。然而，它们不能在相同的操作模式下使用，因为这将需要连续的离子流。提出的创新解决方案是将离子导体与能量存储系统耦合，将离子电位转换为电子电位。该提案将研究新型离子热电发电装置，该装置由离子导体夹在两个储能装置之间组成，包括超级电容器和插入材料。这是一种旨在回收低品位废热、提高工业过程可持续性和减少碳排放的新方法。

Electronic thermoelectrics use semiconductors to convert waste heat into electricity. This is an established energy generation technology, for example, used by NASA to power the Mars Rovers. However, it is not very suitable for low-grade waste heat recovery due to poor power generation from small temperature differences.Ionic conductors generate much larger thermal voltages and are better suited to near room temperature operation. However, they cannot be used in the same mode of operation as this would require a continuous flow of ions. The innovative solution proposed is to couple the ionic conductor with an energy storage system that converts the ionic potential to an electronic one.This proposal will investigate novel ionic thermoelectric power generation devices consisting of an ionic conductor sandwiched between two energy stores, including supercapacitors and insertion materials. This is a novel approach targeted at recovery of low-grade waste heat, increasing the sustainability of industrial processes and reducing carbon emissions.